Road trip!

Despite a bout of food poisoning that made me feel a bit yuck, the plates arrived this morning and nothing was going to stop that first legal road  trip.

I stuck the plates on - I was planning on bolting the front plate on but I just didn't feel up to the effort of getting holes drilled correctly. I just about managed to adjust the suspension a little as the car seemed to have settled on the N/S.

With that done,  it was time to hit the road:

Apologies but I couldn't work out a way to attach my camera to the car,  so no video - I'll try another time.

A short,  80 mile trip around some beautiful English roads in a 2 seater convertible with the sun shining - it doesn't get any better.

Zedster (for that is his newly-annointed name) performed flawlessly - temperature stayed below 100 degC the whole time, nothing fell off or leaked and despite trying to remember that it's a new engine and needs running in,  there were some enjoyable bursts of acceleration,  hinting at the fun to come.

By the skin of my teeth

... But a PASS 

So,  last night I tightened up the handbrake and used a cable tie and pipe to hold the brake cable away from the rear wishbone.

This morning,  I went to a local garage to do a brake test - handbrake came up at 26% efficient (needs to be 18%) and brakes seemed OK but they don't do the test the same as IVA,  so I couldn't be sure. They also wouldn't let me just run on the rollers for a while to try bed the pads in - they were worried about damaging their stuff. So,  I had to hope it would work out...

Journey from Hell again to get to West London - if my car can survive doing 30 miles in an hour and 40 minutes,  it can survive anything! Poor thing has had a baptism of fire for its first 150 miles of its life.

I would highly recommend going for your test on a Friday - my tester was demob-happy and it really helped. He glanced at the brake line fixes and gaiter clearances - no problem. Up on the ramp,  he was very impressed with the way I had done the fix for the rear brake line and he was also very impressed with my build overall - he gave me a few horror stories of other kit cars he had had to test. He was strangely pleased to see I had put yellow paint marks on my bolts as well.... all this helped immensely with the next stage.

The brake test didn't seem to go much better than last time - I could see the figures he was writing down and they seemed similar to last time but he seemed happy. However,  the handbrake didn't come up to scratch - better but still too low,  he said,  despite my earlier MOT test at the garage. He then asked if I wanted to do any adjustment - I didn't really know what to do as I had adjusted it to the limit I could the night before but he obviously wanted me to pass,  so I simply tightened the handbrake as far as I could - so far,  in fact,  that I couldn't move the car by hand with the handbrake off. But he redid the test,  pronounced it a pass and then also very kindly allowed the 2mm of travel as enough of a reserve (I didn't even realise that was a requirement - it hadn't been mentioned in my first test). He went off to do the paperwork and I loosened the handbrake back to 'normal'.

So,  a pass but I feel a tad lucky - if I had caught the tester on a bad day,  it may have been another fail.

Took a slightly better route home and felt great - you can't be too shy in a kit car,  loads of people stare at you,  other drivers strike up conversations as you're sitting in traffic, no-one hoots at you when you do something illegal (I twice had to do a dodgy turn) and people wave you out all the time.

So, the main task is done - build a functioning,  road-legal car. The next steps are:

Bonnet louvres to help keep the engine cool.
Windscreen.
Roof (canvas).
Doors.

I could also do with calming the idle - it's at about 1050 rpm at the moment - could do with being 950.

In true awards ceremony style,  I'd like to thank some people for getting me to this stage:

1. Simon from GBS (well,  not any more) - I am the top poster on the GBS owners forum because I asked so many questions and Simon answered them all - his help was essential. No chance I would have finished without him.

2. Bob Tucker from the RHOCAR forum for welding my VIN plate on.

3. Colin from the same forum for loan of his brake pipe flaring tool and Jon for loan of the engine crane.

4. Several other builders blogs but mostly Richard Lincoln's - much clearer than my rambling.

It has been a great 2 years and I've thoroughly enjoyed the build,  in fact a little sad it's mostly over. But this should be a great summer!

Did I mention I passed? :-)

Close but no cigar

Sadly,  IVA was a fail but for minor stuff so one more test should do it.

I had hoped for a dry day and I got that OK,  as well as 32 degC,  hottest day of the year so far. With hindsight,  a test centre in West London was not the best choice when you need to get there by 8am through rush hour. Well,  I'd hoped leaving at 6am would mean missing rush hour but I didn't  realise how early rush hour starts these days. The heat was the main problem and I had images of me breaking down before I even got there.  The gauge hovered just below the 100 mark the whole time,  with the fan going pretty constantly but no leaks,  which was good.

For the first 28 miles,  everything was fine and then,  2 miles from the centre,  my throttle started sticking on. I managed to struggle the last 2 miles but I couldn't work out what the problem was - everything looked fine. The test bloke was very good about it and started the test anyway while I had a think. While he was doing his stuff,  I called GBS and Richard suggested it must be the cable or pedal - I had been concentrating on the throttle body. With the pedal box open,  I realised the heat must have expanded the bolt that the throttle pedal pivoted on,  making it very stiff. A quarter turn to loosen it and all OK.

Not the impression I wanted to make 5 minutes after arrival:

Waiting in the torture chamber:

While the box was off,  the tester checked inside and wasn't happy with one of my brake lines into the master cylinder - it had a slight kink and some damage; a small graze on the side. So,  10 minutes in,  I knew I was going to fail, which was very depressing.

In total,  he found a few other faults;

1. Front brake line to caliper of twisted at full lock.
2. Rear brake line touching wishbone.
3. Steering rack gaiter touching wishbone at full lock and too close to the panel on the other side. I had checked this early on in my build but I recently lowered the front suspension to help with self-centering and I think that is what has caused that.
4. Handbrake not strong enough.
5. Rear brakes slightly stronger than the front brakes.

So a pretty simple list to fix except for the brakes - how do you make brakes weaker?

He said the self-centering was pretty minimal but he let me off and he didn't even check the front indicator height,  so that wasn't an issue.

Unbelievably, the emissions test sailed through - it took him longer to get the gas analyser working! Huge thanks to Simon (ex-GBS) for his emissions map and instructions on how to adjust it - worked a charm and promising for future MOTs.

Interestingly, he didn't seem to do a noise test or check the side mirror views and he made no comment about the edge trim on my steering wheel spokes.

I was very impressed with how the car handled the heat and traffic; I did have nightmares about breaking down in the middle of rush hour.

So,  a slightly disappointing day but,  with hindsight, it could have been much worse and most of those failures I couldn't have foreseen.

On with the fixes...

The Fat Lady's Singing

... and that,  my loyal fans, after almost exactly 700 days, signifies the end - well,  up to IVA anyway.

The last job,  fitting the seats, is done:

Some engine tuning help this week and then an MOT (sort of) and IVA in 2 weeks.

The Great Unveiling

Today was a biggie - my seats arrived and look great, although tiny. Unfortunately,  they're so small that the universal runners I've got are too wide for them,  so a new set are on order.

I needed to get a photo of the car 'finished' for the IVA application which was a great excuse to get it out the garage,  seats in (vaguely) and the last of the panel covering removed - ta dah!

Sorry,  should have got a clearer shot of the seats - I'll do that for next time.

While the car was out,  I wanted to go for a real drive,  just up the road but enough to check out if she actually vaguely works. First,  I wanted to try play with the ECU but I couldn't get my PC to connect up. After some mucking about,  it briefly connected but went again,  which suggests the cheap USB adaptor I bought has gone AOL. I've been to Maplins and bought a decent one and I'll try again tomorrow.

As I haven't actually started the car since November,  I was a bit apprehensive but no worries,  started first time. The idle isn't very smooth (which is why I wanted to play with the mapping) but not too bad.

So,  bright sunny day, a rumbling engine in a sexy little body (the car,  not me) - it would be rude not to. So off I rumbled up the road... 200m and back. She runs horribly; map desperately needs sorting out and I have no self-centering of the steering which is an IVA fail,  so needs fixing.

The brakes are rubbish but I'm not sure if that's just me not being used to non-servo brakes,  the pads needing bedding in or bleeding - most likely all three.

Positives? The speedo works,  which I'm very happy about because it could be annoying to fix.

But the best bit was the drive; the noise,  the wind (even at 25mph), the mechanical clunk's and whines - awesome! My wife became my first passenger and even she loved it (she's shown little interest up to now).

So,  list of jobs:

1. Steering self-centering.
2. Brake bleeding.
3. Fit seats.
4. Engine map improvement.

In other news,  my IVA is being engraved on a steel tab at a local shoe repair shop and a nice chap from the RHOCAR forum has kindly offered to weld it for me.

I've made an utter dogs dinner of the gearstick gaiter,  getting glue everywhere but it will do for now.

And finally,  the story of the day:

No backing out now...

The deed is done:

The Beast Awakens

One of the best days of my build so far...

The plan today was to get the wheels on,  roll the car out,  clear out the dump that is my garage and try get the engine tuned to run better. 

Firstly,  tidied up some tunnel wiring:

I had to cut-out a small piece of the dash support piece on the side where the Carling switches are,  to enable the dash to be fitted in place:

Only 3 holes line up with the rivnuts on the dash support -  I will need to fettle the others at some later point. 

With that done,  out came the wheels for the first time and simply bolted on. The next step was getting the car down off the axle jacks, which was trickier than I expected; the rear wasn't too bad as my jack could go up enough to lift the car,  removed the rear stands and lowered the car to the floor. The front was more difficult as my jack wouldn't extend up high enough to get under the front chassis rail - I had to use an extra piece of wood and,  after removing the front stands,  then I lowered the car too quickly,  trapping the jack underneath! Luckily,  a neighbour came to the rescue with his own jack,  which I used to recover mine. 

So,  the car was on its wheels for the first time! Damn,  it's low... 

Now to get out my garage which has a 2 inch lip down... my son in the driving seat to work the brakes,  my neighbour pushing from behind and me at the front checking nothing grounded. I used a couple of wood pieces as ramps and slowly,  she rolled out to meet the world - and looked amazing:

Absolutely love those wheels!

My garage looked a state:

... but a bit of work and tidiness was restored:

The one bit of bad news was that I couldn't get my ECU to talk to my laptop - I recently had to overwrite Windows with Ubuntu (because of a virus) and it doesn't seem to recognise the USB port. Not sure how to fix that... 

I left the engine running for long enough for the fan to come on,  which is great to know that works and my thermostat seems to work as all the coolant pipes got hot (and didn't start leaking). Brake lines all still leak-free as well,  all my electrics seemed to still be working and all the gauges do something - wonderful!

Even the handbrake works well without any adjustment (although I should maybe do some to make it come on with less travel). 

Even the wife,  dad and dog got involved:

But best of all (after a weekend of great things) was DRIVING MY car!! OK,  2 metres forward and several back but IT MOVES! Like a real car! 

Spent a while having to adjust the clutch cable (and still needs fine-tuning) but all gears were easy to select and power goes to the wheels. 

Which is lucky because I had hoped to reverse the car back into the garage,  which I was able to do,  with some wheel spin,  lots of fumes and wonderful noise. 

I am a very,  very happy chappy. 

There are some issues to be addressed; the horn didn't work and the wheel alignment needs work and I may have done the rear suspension bolts up too tight all those months ago; there is no give in the rear at all,  even with my weight on it. 

But it has been a weekend of great import and I am,  as the kids say,  stoked! 

Finally, a car shape

Lucky you -  2 posts in one day...

I hadn't planned to even go into the garage today but I somehow managed to squeeze in what I thought would be a quick session to start on the nose cone

Several other blogs seem to have had issues with their nose cone so I was a little concerned but it turned out to be much easier than I expected. First was some rivnuts in the top chassis brackets:

The nose needed a little bit of the flange trimmed off to allow it to fit over the outside of those brackets.  Then 2 holes underneath in the lower chassis rail with rivnuts,  a little jiggery-pokery with the holes in the nose cone and voila:

As I still seemed to have some (stolen)  time left,  I thought I'd try fit the scuttle. Again,  this was something that seemed a bit daunting but unless I've done something wrong,  it was very simple. Maybe this was because I already had the correct shape formed but all I had to do was bolt it in place and tighten the bolts gradually. It tightened down perfectly:

Finally, something I've wanted to do for ages - fit the steering wheel. A few simple bolts and done - placed the dash roughly in place for the full effect:

So I finally have something that looks far more car-shaped which should please my son who keeps complaining that it doesn't look like anything!

DiVINe

Just a short post to mention a further step along the path to legitimacy - got an email through from the DVLA with my VIN number they have allocated me.

A small thing that strangely feels like a big deal.

A beating heart

Well,  today was a biggie...

First up,  a delivery - an air filter which was the final piece needed:

It was blue on the advert but hey-ho...

Emerald ECU temporarily in place and connected up:

Two trips to the local garage to put 10 litres of unleaded in the tank. Next step was to check the fuel supply stage by stage.

First,  disconnect the high pressure pump to stop it trying to suck up air and overheat itself. Disconnected the pipe from the tank to the swirl pot (at the swirl pot end) and switched on the ignition. The LP pump at the back kicked into life (yeehaa in itself) and petrol squirted out the pipe (into a jar)  - SUCCESS but also a problem; fuel leak on the LP pump. Removed the pipe and the brass fitting on the pump. Added PTFE tape to the brass thread (I'd already done this to the other side when I first installed it - dunno why I didn't do it to this side as well). Pipe re-attached , couple more cycles of the ignition and leak fixed.

Next was to fill the swirl pot by reconnecting the pipe and cycling the ignition a few times (the ECU switches off the pumps after a few seconds if it realises you aren't trying to start the engine).

Step 3,  check fuel going through the HP pump. Disconnected the pipe to the fuel rail and re-connected the live wire for the HP pump. Switched on the ignition and the HP pump came on (Yeehah) but no fuel out the pipe (Boo). Started loosening the pipe into the HP pump but fuel started leaking out so fuel was getting to the pump OK.  Stared at it for a while ('cos that's a known engineering technique) and had an idea - I'd been told the pump had one slightly larger terminal that was positive,  the other negative - maybe I'd got them wired the wrong way?

Quick swap of the terminals and voila,  fuel out the pipe - SUCCESS.

So,  checklist:

1. Petrol in and getting to the engine.
2. Engine oil in.
3. Filter attached.

Bit of hassle getting the laptop connected to the ECU - I'd bought a widget to connect the old-fashioned D-type connector on the Emerald cable to a USB for my laptop. I also didn't yet have the ECU maps from GBS but I was too excited to wait for this to get sent.

Dragged out the family for the ubiquitous video and this is what happened (excuse the video skills; couldn't find my tripod so I had to entrust my son with the camera and he is easily distracted) :

YEE - FLIPPING - HAAAAAAAA

Very loud,  very smelly,  very smoky but the heart beats!!

I later found a base Zetec map in the Emerald software that might have got the engine idling - might try that tomorrow.

But for now, I am spiffingly happy... no obvious leaks anywhere either,  all looking good.

I've finally managed to order some Carling rocker switches,  by the way,  so that will hopefully improve the dash quality and allow me to tidy up the wiring.

Happy Anniversary

A short post to reflect on one year since I started my build (well, Monday actually but I missed it).

Reading some of my earlier posts, it amazes me how much I've learned in the last year. I don't want to sound all tree-hugger and new-Age freak-like but doing something as fundamental and as complex as building a motor vehicle changes the way you act towards so many other things; I am much happier to move out of my comfort zone, with more confidence to attempt tasks I wouldn't normally.

I recently replaced a leaking ball cock in a loft water tank,  for example. For a cost of £7, I fixed something that probably would have cost me £100 if I'd called a plumber out. Small things but significant...

So,  I was hoping to finish by the end of this year but that's looking unlikely with the delays caused by the extra work for the electrics (engine loom and dash). Not the end of the world but I'm now targeting the Stoneleigh show next year as a completion date - I want to drive there in my own car.

Happy Anniversary to me - onwards...

Dashed if I do, Dashed if I don't.

Very exciting,  the dash is done. This is the holey version:

And then with the dials,  switches and warning lights all in place:

I really wanted to put the rocker switches down the right-hand edge in individually and vertical but I wasn't sure if I could do all the holes without messing at least one up,  so a simple panel neatens it up. I'm not a fan of the huge hazard button but it was the only one that didn't seem to need a separate flasher relay. 

Bit wonky in places,  not exactly a harmonious design but,  hey,  this is a kit car. If I'd  wanted perfectly aligned dials and stylish,  no expense-spared layout, I'd buy an MX5. Personally,  I think it's great... and I've emptied so many boxes!

Not wired up yet,  obviously:

That's the next job on the list...

Boxed in

Well,  tonight turned into quite a significant session.

I really want to try fill the coolant system and check for leaks before I go much further but to do that,  I really need the firewall in place and that really needed the pedal box fixed. I realised that I've gone to some effort,  like others,  to use rivnuts for the firewall to make it easily removable in the future BUT unlike others,  I've got a header tank and a brake fluid reservoir bolted to the firewall,  so removing the firewall in future,  even with rivnuts,  isn't going to be that simple. Ah well...

Spent a while staring at the pedal box,  trying to work out if I could safely rivet it in place. Pedals done,  clutch and accelerator cables in place,  brake lines in place - couldn't think of a reason not to,  so out came the gunk and rivets.

After that,  I went a bit nuts and bolted the firewall down and fitted the pipes for the brake fluid as well as a few small jobs - bent the clutch cable bracket a little to give a better angle, grommet in the firewall for the brake fluid level wire and fitted the final pipe in the cooling system,  from the top of the thermostat to the top of the header tank.

All looking pretty good:

Good evening all round - always nice to finally tighten something.

Great news! A screw-up...

A minor screw-up; the silicon pipe to the bottom of the header tank is 2cm too short,  meaning that it won't quite reach the header tank when it's bolted to the firewall. Luckily,  metal crafting genius (me,  in case that's not obvious) to the rescue... I love doing these things.

Art and hacksaw skills to the fore:

                                  

... And then some panel-beating/bending:

Attached to the header tank:

And then riveted to the firewall:

... along with the remote brake fluid reservoir. I've riveted and bonded the battery tray in place so the whole lot looks like this:

The wiper motor should be delivered tomorrow and that goes on the other side of the firewall and will determine the battery position (more precisely,  where the battery cables can come through the firewall).

I also,  scarily,  started work on my fibreglass dash. Having never touched fibreglass in my life before,  I decided to do the small holes on the edge that will match up with the rivnuts in the scuttle inner panel. Trickier than I expected - eventually used a ratchet strap to hold the scuttle in place,  put the dash on and drilled pilot holes through the rivnuts from the rear. I then took off the dash and did the holes with a 6mm drill. The best result was when drilling at a slow speed and the holes are pretty neat but whether they're right is yet to be seen.

Started thinking about the wiring loom for the instruments - I'm doing my own instrument loom as well. The plugs on the GBS main loom are  something specialised which I can't find on the Internet to buy (!) and GBS don't have them to sell (they don't make the looms in house). So,  I'm going to chop them off and use standard plugs,  which are on order.

PS: a minor milestone; this is my 100th post!! As I tend to post after every garage session and my sessions average 2 hours,  this gives a rough idea of how many hours my build has and will take.  Allowing for the fact the first 20 or so posts were pre-build, I've roughly spent 160 hours on my build so far.

Milestone 2 - Engine in

Busy day today...

I had planned to bolt the gearbox to the engine and then install but I couldn't get the gearbox into gear,  which I needed to do to make sure I could rotate the shaft and help it slot into the engine. So,  I fitted the quickshift:

But this meant I wouldn't be able to get the engine and gearbox in in one go. Yes,  I could take the quickshift off again but I don't like too many things off and on.   Not a big issue but meant the gearbox had to go in first.  With the help of a chum (thanks Dave) it was easier than I expected,  although we did have to take it out to hacksaw off a couple of pieces off the bell housing.  They weren't really in the way but just looked to be too close to the tunnel panels and it was only a 10 minute job.

Dowels in,  shaft greased,  it was time for the big moment - the engine.

I moved one axle stand to be in the middle of the car and removed the other one,  to allow the engine crane to fit under the car,  with its legs straddling the axle stand. My garage has a one inch drop down to a sloping,  gravel driveway -  not ideal for a stand and why I never planned or needed to get the car onto its wheels and push it out the garage. With the stand and engine halfway out of the garage,  we pushed it sideways and swung the engine over the bay:

Then pushed forward and slowly lowered. To get the mounts in, Dave pulled the engine up on one side so the other mount could drop below the top chassis bar,  then engine lowered and pushed across allowing the other mount to squeeze through (hope that makes sense?).

Crane pushed forward a few more inches,  engine e lowered level with the gearbox and then an inch or 2 forward so the gearbox shaft was vaguely in the clutch. A slight rotation of the propshaft and kerching - the engine and gearbox slotted together like star-crossed lovers (to paraphrase Shakespeare). Lots of whooping and high-fives ensued - naively,  I thought the hardest bit was done.

No,  the hard bit was just starting - trying to get the dowels in! We spent ages raising the engine,  lowering the engine,  twisting the engine, bashing bits with a rubber mallet - we couldn't get the dowels to go in. With the MT75 gearbox,  there are only 2 bolts between the engine and bellhousing (GBS have confirmed this is right) and they are at the top of the bellhousing only. So even as we tightened these bolts,  it didn't want to push the dowels in -  very annoying.

Eventually,  we decided to use a G-clamp to squeeze the dowel in - success! (great idea Dave).

Now I haven't mentioned the other problem we did have - none of my bolts were right! I had decided on bolt length by putting a screwdriver in the holes,  measuring the depth and thus deciding on bolt length. However,  it seems that none of these holes actually have a thread going the length of the hole so the bolts were a few mm too long.  I had to cut down the gearbox bolts before I could fit them properly and I still haven't done the gearbox mount bolt which has the same issue. And the bolts I ordered for the propshaft link weren't fully threaded (they were in the picture online) - they had a small,  5mm shank but that was enough  to prevent them fitting properly. So they need replacing as well! Seriously,  bolts have caused the most problems in this build so far...

Amazingly,  drilling the holes and bolting in the mounts was very simple. I'd earlier marked the centre of the cross-member on the chassis and I lined this up with the flywheel bolt and simply lowered the engine onto the plates where the mounts were to go. I specifically didn't drill pilot holes because whenever I do that,  the drill always wanders a tiny bit and the final hole is then a mm or 2 out,  which I didn't want with the mounts. So,  using the weight of the engine to keep everything still,  I just drilled through the mount holes - simples!

Cleared the swarf,  popped the bolts in (supplied by GBS so they were the right thing),  torqued up and Bob's a close relative.

The engine. Is. In!!

A physically and mentally demanding day but,  God,  it feels frigging AWESOME!

Many thanks to Dave (and Paul who turned up only 5 hours late but did find the mount bolts after I'd spent 20 minutes frantically searching for them).